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A post shared by @amyschumer on Feb 14, 2020 at 10:14pm PST
We learned in January that Amy Schumer and her husband, Chris Fischer, were exploring IVF to expand their family. Amy chronicled part of her IVF experience on social media, both to let her fans in and to solicit advice on how to deal with the emotional and physical aspects of the treatment. Over the weekend, Amy gave an update on Instagram on her process. Next to the photo above of Amy excited to share her news, she wrote a caption in which she said they’d gotten one normal embryo from the 35 harvested, 26 of which had been fertilized.
Hey! So ivf went like this for us. They retrieved 35 eggs from me. Not bad for the old gal right? Then 26 fertilized! Whoah right? For all of those we got 1 normal embryo from that and 2 low level mosaic (mosaic means there are some abnormal cells but can still lead to a healthy baby) So we feel lucky we got 1! But what a drop off right? Anyway I have so appreciated everyone sharing their Ivf stories with me. They made me feel empowered and supported. So I wanted to tell you how mine went down. So many women go through many rounds of ivf which is painful and mentally grueling. I heard from hundreds of women about my their miscarriages and struggles and also many hopeful stories about how after rounds and rounds of ivf it worked!! It has been really encouraging. Thank you. Anyway I am so grateful for our son and that we have the resources to get help in this way. I just wanted to share and send love and strength to all of the warrior women who go through this process. ??? my number is in my bio if you are open to text me your experience or whatever you feel like. I read them when I can’t sleep or have time ?
Again, I applaud Amy for being so open about this. Her language is relatable and there’s a warmth to her posts that makes it feel like a girlfriend just called me with her news and not some high-profile person recounting their story. In addition to reaching out to those going through the same thing, she is teaching people about her journey. Like Amy, those numbers shock me. If they had pulled 35 viable eggs from me, I would assume those were 35 babies waiting for me. But straight off the bat, 25% were lost because they didn’t fertilize. And then just one shows no abnormal cells. I had no clue those were the numbers people going through IVF were looking at.
According to Refinery29, IVF can cost between $10,000-$15,000 for a single round (like what Amy just went through) and $17,000 for egg storage on top of that. Women under 35 have a 48% success rate per round (the percentage decreases with age). That is a huge leap of faith for anyone to make. Amy is 38 so, as she said, she’s quite lucky to have possibly three shots. Going off pure assumption, my guess is Amy will transfer the embryo and not freeze it. So we will probably not get another update until she passes the 12-week mark in her pregnancy. I’m sure it will be as honest as the rest of her posts. In the meantime, I’m sure Amy will continue to reach out for help as well as support those who have shared the experience with her. Good luck to her and to anyone else going through this.
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If you had told me this year I would again be home watching the Oscars in my sweatpants I would have believed you. #makessense
A post shared by @ amyschumer on Feb 9, 2020 at 4:49pm PST
Photo credit: Instagram, Getty Images and Backgrid
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